The impact of the Holocaust on the development of International Law

International HolocaustRemembrance Day

The Hague

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Program International Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague 2020

16.30 hrs. Registration with coffee/tea

Welcome

by H.E. Mr. Johan Remkes, Acting Mayor of The Hague

Opening

by H.E. Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the International Court of Justice

Testimony of a 2nd generation Holocaust survivor

by Mr. Arie Sznaj

Candle lighting in commemoration of Holocaust victims

by H.E. Mr. Naor Gilon, Ambassador of the State of Israel

Introduction of keynote speaker Professor Philippe Sands

by H.E. Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova, President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers &

Specialist Prosecutor’s Office

Lecture ‘Beyond East West Street’

by Professor Philippe Sands QC

Closing

19.15 hrs. Reception (catering is supervised kosher)

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

Shalom and welcome!

As the Rabbi of the Jewish Community (NIG) of The Hague, which suffered so terribly under the scourge of Nazi occupa-tion, and as an interested follower of the many important in-ternational law institutions and activities of the ‘City of Peace and Justice,’ I have long felt the absence of an annual event to mark the link between the tragedy of the Holocaust and subse-quent developments in international law, international huma- nitarian law and human rights in general. While in court issues may have to be dealt with in a dry and judicial manner, it is also essential to keep awareness of the context in which these legal developments take place. Missing that, risks losing the soul and spirit of justice.

In January 2019 Professor Yoram Dinstein set the precedent with an excellent, well researched and insightful lecture on ‘the Impact of the Holocaust on the Development of International Law’. The feedback from the professional community as well as from the public at large was very encouraging.

Professor Philippe Sands has graciously accepted our invitation to deliver this year’s lecture titled ‘Beyond East West Street’. His best-selling book has created tremendous awareness all over the world about the relationship between the Holocaust and the development of International Law. His special skills in communicating sophisticated ideas in a relatable manner gua- rantee a stimulating contribution to the intellectual life of The Hague as we start 2020.

We are very honored to have the International Law community represented at the highest level with the presence of H.E. Judge Abdulaqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the International Court of Justice, who kindly agreed to open the evening. Profound thanks is due to all of the contributors tonight; Mr. Johan Remkes, the acting Mayor of The Hague, H.E. Naor Gilon, the Ambassador of the State of Israel, H.E. Ekaterina Trendafilova, the President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers & Specialist Prosecutors Office. Particularly to Mr. Arie Sznaj, who with his testimony puts a very personal touch on the message of this evening.

by Rabbi Shmuel Katzman

This second International Holocaust Remembrance Day lecture in The Hague brings a sense of permanence toward filling

a need to focus on an often overlooked aspect of the legacy of the Holocaust.

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Organizing tonight’s commemoration can only be accom-plished with the participation of many. The Jewish cultural organization Chaj, the Municipality of The Hague and the Embassy of Israel in the Netherlands have joined forces to co-host this event. We must pay tribute to the team who have worked unstintingly and creatively to achieve tonight’s result: Ms. Caroline Twizer, Ms. Betty Stad and Ms. Anne Dunkelgrun. Additional thanks to Ms. Avigail Frisch from the Embassy of Israel, Mr. Martin Born from the Municipality of The Hague and Mr. Alan Stephens, Advisory Board Member Tom Lantos Institute, Budapest, Hungary. Financial support has been pro-vided by the Maror, Levi Lassen and Roos-Weijl Foundations and by private donors. Our gratitude for this cannot be over-estimated.

I conclude with a prayer that we may merit to witness the ful-filment of the prophecy “And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness.”

With thanks also to all those who have joined us today,

Rabbi Shmuel Katzman

H.E. Johan Remkes

H.E. Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf

H.E. Mr. Johan Remkes (1951) has been Acting Mayor of The Hague since 11 October 2019. He was Commissioner of the King in the province of Noord-Holland from 1 July 2010 to 1 January 2019. Mr. Remkes started his political career as chair-man of the JOVD and later became a member of the Provincial Executive of Groningen. In the pe-riods 1993-1998 and 2006-2010 he was a member of parliament for the VVD. As a member, he dealt

with matters such as economic and internal af-fairs, taxes and media policy. In the second Kok cabinet, he was the State Secretary for Housing. From July 2002 to February 2007, he was Minister of the Interior. In the Balkenende I cabinet (2002-2003) he was also Deputy Prime Minister. In 2017-2018 he was chairman of the State Committee on the Parliamentary System.

H.E. President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf is a Judge and the President of the International Court of Jus-tice, The Netherlands, and member of the Institut de Droit International, Geneva, Switzerland.

President Yusuf is a former Legal Adviser to various intergovernmental organizations, including UNES-CO and UNIDO, the founder and General Editor of the African Yearbook of International Law, a former Lecturer in international law at the Somali National

University in Mogadishu and some other universi-ties, and author of numerous publications on inter-national legal matters. President Yusuf holds a Ph.D. in international law from IUHEI, Geneva. On Februa- ry 6, 2009, President Yusuf was elected as a Judge of the International Court of Justice. On February 6, 2015, he was elected Vice-President of the Court. On February 6, 2018, President Yusuf was elected the 25th President of the International Court of Justice.

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H.E. President Ekaterina Trendafilova

Arie Sznaj

H.E. President Ekaterina Trendafilova from Bulga- ria was appointed President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers as of December 2016 and took office on 12 January 2017. President Trendafilova served as a Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from March 2006 to March 2015. President Trendafilova advised the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria on the establishment of the ICC and served as an expert to the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament of Bulgaria. She headed the working group on the reform of the Bulgarian Criminal Procedure Code in line with Euro-pean and international standards for efficient admin-istration of justice and protection of human rights

(1998-1999), represented Bulgaria at the UN Commis-sion for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1992-1994) and served as a Deputy District Attorney at the Sofia District Court (1985-1989) as well as a barrister with the Sofia bar (1995-2006). President Trendafilo-va has been a Humboldt (1993-1994) and a Fulbright scholar (1997). She completed her PhD in 1984 and is a renowned scholar in the field of criminal procedure, human rights, international and comparative criminal justice.

President Trendafilova is a prominent member and President of a number of legal associations.

Arie Sznaj, 1964, was born and raised in The Hague, an active member of the local Jewish com-munity. After obtaining a degree in business ad-ministration from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, he emigrated to Israel, where he lives with his wife and four children.

Arie currently heads the structured export finance department of Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv.

His father Salomon Sznaj was a native of Lem-berg/Lvov and survivor of the ghetto.

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Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

Philippe Sands Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He appears as counsel before the ICJ and ICC, and sits as an arbitrator at ICSID, the PCA and the CAS.

He is author of ‘Lawless World’ (2005) and ‘Torture Team’ (2008) and several academic books on international law, and has contributed to the New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, the Financial Times and The Guardian.

‘East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Geno-cide’ (2016) won the 2016 Baillie Gifford (formerly Samuel Johnson) Prize, the 2017 British Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the 2018 Prix Montaigne. The sequel, which is also the subject of a BBC podcast, ‘The Ratline’, will be published in 2020.

Philippe is President of English PEN and a member of the Board of the Hay Festival.

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The Embassy of Israel in the NetherlandsIn 1949 Israel and the Netherlands established diplomatic rela-tions and Israel opened its Embassy in The Hague. The Nether-lands was the first country to send a political representative to Jerusalem, although today the Dutch Embassy is in Tel Aviv. The Israeli Embassy in The Hague currently houses seven divisions: political, public diplomacy (public affairs, media, culture), legal, consular, economic and trade, administration and police affairs.

The Netherlands and Israel have reached multiple agreements over the years in the fields of culture, social security, double taxa-tion, agricultural research and defense cooperation. In December 2013, the Israeli and Dutch Prime Ministers launched the Dutch

Israeli Bilateral Forum. Within the framework of this Forum Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the Nether-lands in 2016. The aim of the Bilateral Forum is to strengthen the close ties that already exist between Israel and the Netherlands.

The Forum provides a basis for initiating and promoting private sector led initiatives, enhancing cooperation in the fields of aca-demia and young leadership, as well as an opportunity for regular political dialogue.

One outcome of this cooperation are trilateral efforts of the Netherlands, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, currently ongo-ing, to improve the economic situation and infrastructure in the Palestinian Territories.

The Forum reflects the special relations between Israel and the Netherlands, as well as the mutual interest in further promoting these relations, now and in the future.

At the invitation of President Rivlin of the State of Israel, his Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, along with other royals, presidents, prime ministers and parliamentary lea-ders, attended last week the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, en-titled ‘Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism’ at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. The Forum marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the International Holocaust Memorial Day.

Ambassador Naor Gilon

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

Eduard Belinfante was born on March 22, 1875. He had a law office on the Zeestraat in The Hague, together with his brother, Guus. At the end of September 1943, he was deported to Westerbork with his wife, Judith Belinfante-Mendes and from there to Theresienstadt. On October 28,1944 Eduard accompanied his wife vo- luntarily on the last train to Auschwitz. He died in the train on the way there on October 30, 1944.

He was an acquaintance of Mr. Lodewijk Ernst Visser. According to his granddaughter, also named Judith Belinfante, he was a valued colleague, a loving father, a witty advocate, a traditional Jew, Chairman of the Portuguese Jewish Congregation in The Hague, sec-retary of the Bureau for Consultation and, from 1933, active member of the Jewish refugee community from Germany.

Dutch Jewish lawyers who perished in the Holocaust

Mr. Eduard Belinfante

Ernst Lodewijk Visser was born on August 14, 1901. He was the son of Dr. Lodewijk Ernst Visser and Mrs. Cornelia Visser-Wertheim.

After studying at Leiden University where he received his law degree, he became actively involved in the re-sistance. He was involved with the Parool Group, the resistance group that published the illegal resistance

newspaper, Het Parool. He was arrested in July, 1942 because he refused to wear the Jewish star and de-ported to Mauthausen on August 1, 1942. He was mur-dered on September 2, 1942.

There is a memorial at the Jewish Cemetery in Overveen on the gravestone of his mother where Ernst Lodewijk Visser is commemorated.

Mr. Ernst Lodewijk Visser

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Elisabeth Levenbach-Goudeket was born on July 17, 1894. She was married to Adolf Levenbach, with whom she had a son Joost Adolf Levenbach who was born in 1927. She studied law at the University of Amsterdam from 1912 to 1919, received her doctorate on July 1, 1919, and lived in Aerdenhout until 1941. She held po-sitions as secretary of Jewish Social Work in Amster-dam, The Society for Palestine, and the Vereeniging ter bescherming van Joodsche meisjes. She was deported to Bergen-Belsen where she managed to survive from 1941 until 1945. She died on May 15, 1945 in Tröbitz as the result of her deprivations. In April 1945, 2500 priso-

ners from Bergen-Belsen were put on a train transport to Theresienstadt, in three trains. Theresienstadt was no longer feasible and especially the last one, called “The lost train” was liberated by Russian troops at Trö-bitz after a long journey through Germany, on April 23, 1945. Of the prisoners, 198 were dead upon arrival. In the weeks following the liberation another 320 people died due to exhaustion and disease.

Next to the church of Tröbitz, there is a Holocaust- memorial commemorating this train. There is also a mass grave with 160 victims.

Anna de Leeuw was born on January 30, 1889. She studied law from 1910 until 1915 at the University of Amsterdam and received her doctorate in Law on April 27, 1915. Anna de Leeuw and her husband, Hes-sel Leidensdorff, belonged to the so-called Barneveld Group. They were interned on May 25, 1943 in “Huis De Schaffelaar” in Barneveld. On September 29, 1943

they were both deported to Camp Westerbork. Anna Leidensdorff-de Leeuw died in Camp Westerbork and was cremated. Later the urn with her ashes was placed in the Jewish cemetery in Muiderberg. Hes-sel Leidensdorff was deported to Theresienstadt on September 4, 1944. He survived the Holocaust and returned to Amsterdam on June 6, 1945.

Mr. Dr. Elisabeth Goudeket

Mr. Dr. Anna Leidensdorff-de Leeuw

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

Lodewijk Ernst Visser was born in Amersfoort on August 21, 1871. He became a lawyer and lecturer on human rights. After practicing law in Amsterdam and working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he joined the Supreme Court as a judge. In 1933 he became Vice-President and in 1939 President.

Six months after the beginning of the occupation, on November 21, 1940, he was suspended by the Ger-man occupiers and fired as part of the mandatory resignation of all Jewish officials. None of the Su-preme Court members protested following his sus-pension and dismissal.

From the very beginning of the occupation, Mr. Visser spoke out against the measures taken by the occupiers. In December 1940, the Jewish com-munities in the Netherlands decided to set up the Jewish Coordination Commission (JCC) in order to help refugees. He became chairman of this Com-mission.

After the plunder of the Nieuwe Molstraat Syna-gogue in The Hague on February 2, 1941 by Nazi sym-pathizers, Mr. Visser convinced the board of the NIG to continue their religious services. On the Saturday after, he walked to the synagogue with a top hat, a prayer mantle over his arm and a prayer book in his hand. On April 7, 1941, Mr. Visser was appointed Chairman of the Board of the NIG.

On February 17, 1942, he died as a consequence of a brain hemorrhage. His wife, Cornelia Johanna Sara Visser-Wertheim died in Camp Westerbork in 1944. His son, Ernst was murdered in Mauthausen. His daughter, Anna died long before the war at the age of five. His second daughter, Mathilde survived the war and became a well-known art historian. Today, Mr. Visser has become a symbol of courage and mor-al leadership.

Dr. Lodewijk Ernst Visser

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Jacob Weijl was born on February 4, 1889. He studied law at the University of Leiden. In 1912 he graduated, obtained his doctorate, and started a law practice at Lange Poten 17a. He married Marianne Cohen. In 1929, his younger brother Hijman Simeon also passed his law exam at the University of Leiden. They then prac-ticed law together until 1941.

Jacob Weijl was active within the Jewish community in The Hague. He was, among other things, chairman of the Dutch Jewish Community (NIG), a member of the Palestinian Aid Committee and chairman of the B’nai B’rith community in The Hague.

As acting chairman of the NIG, Jacob Weijl resigned in 1941 so that Lodewijk Ernst Visser could become chair-man. After the death of Mr. Visser, Mr. Weijl became chairman until June 1942. In March 1942 he started to work as a general advisor at the Jewish Council, “De Joodse Raad” in The Hague. Because of this, the de-portation of the family was postponed temporarily.

At the same time, Weijl was active in the resistance and provided support to an organization that helped find hiding places for Jews. After being arrested for treason, he was deported to Camp Westerbork, where he arrived on March 18, 1943. Deportation to Sobibor followed on July 20, 1943. He was murdered three days later, on July 23, 1943.

His wife and three of his children survived the war.There is a memorial stone at the Jewish cemetery in Wassenaar where Jacob, his brother Hijman Simeon with his wife and three children are commemorated.

Mr. Dr. Jacob Weijl

The time in which the Jewish lawyers lived

The time in which the Jewish lawyers lived

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

At the end of the book of Genesis, Joseph makes one deeply poignant request. Though I die in exile, G-d will bring you back to the land, and when he does so, “Carry my bones” with you.When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, and there was a catastro-phe, and he smashed the tablets, and together with G-d made new ones, ever afterward the Israelites carried with them in the Ark the new tablets and the fragments of the old.

And so it has been throughout Jewish history. We carry with us all the fragments of our people’s past, the broken lives, the anguished deaths. For we refuse to let their deaths be in vain. They, our past, live on in us as we continue the Jewish journey to the future, to hope, and to life.

And so it is with the victims of the Shoah, the lost lives, the broken communities, synagogues desecrated and set on fire, the sacred scrolls burned and turned to ash, the children, a mil-lion and a half of them, an entire murdered generation. What our enemies killed we keep alive in the only way we can, in our minds, our memories and our memorial prayers.

There are cultures that forget the past and there are cultures that are held captive by the past. We do neither. We carry the past with us as we will carry the memory of the Shoah with us for as long as the Jewish people exists, as Moses carried the bones of Joseph, and as the Levites carried the fragments of the shattered tablets of stone.

Those fragments of memory help make us who we are. We live for what they died for, when we walk tall as Jews, showing we are not afraid, refusing to be intimidated by the anti-Semitism that has returned to Europe, or by the sustained assault on Is-rael, the one place on earth where Jews have ever been able to defend themselves instead of relying on friends who stayed silent, passive, when our ancestors needed them most.

Friends let us be in no two minds. The new anti-Semitism, dif-ferent from the old merely in focusing not on Jews as individu-

Speech by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks delivered at the Holocaust Memorial, Hyde Park in 2011

Fragments of Memory by Rabbi Lord Jonothan Sacks

“We carry with us all the fragments

of our people’s past, the broken lives,

the anguished deaths.”

als but on Jews as a nation in their own land, is as vicious as the old, as potentially murderous as the old, and the fact that it is being given protected space on our university campuses and in some of our media simply go to show that what we learn from history is that people who do not study history fail to learn from history and reproduce all its failings and its hates.

But this time is different. We have the state of Israel. We have Jewish children at Jewish schools. We have good and decent friends. And we have Jerusalem.

If you examine carefully the walls of Jerusalem, you will see a curious phenomenon. Jerusalem was destroyed many times. But each time, its walls were rebuilt from the stones of the ruins of the earlier wars walls. Out of the ruins of the past, Jeru-salem has been rebuilt, and out of the fragments of the memo-ries of the past, the Jewish people have been reborn. So today we say to the souls of those our people lost in Europe’s dark night: we will never forget you, we will never cease to mourn you, we will not let you down, until Jews can walk the world without fear, witnesses against those who choose death, to the G-d of life who told us: “Choose life.”

To read more from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.rabbisacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks on social media.

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

The first Portuguese Jews began to settle in The Hague at the end of the 16th century. After years of worshipping in a home synagogue, they consecrated their beautiful synagogue on the Prinsessegracht in 1726. They were followed by Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe.

The Ashkenazi community was officially established in 1710 and built its synagogue on the Voldersgracht in 1723. A major Jewish quarter arose around the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) neighborhood. As a result of the Emancipation Decree of 1796, the Jewish population of The Hague increased signifi-cantly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite social changes, most of the Jews in The Hague continued to live in poverty in the dense Jewish quarter. In 1844 a mon-umental Ashkenazi synagogue was consecrated on the Wa-genstraat.

Another Ashkenazi synagogue, located at the Voldersgracht, was completed in 1887. Smaller synagogues were scattered throughout the city. The relatively small population of well-off Jews, however, produced a steady stream of bankers, par-liamentarians, painters, poets and writers, as well as the first

Jew to become a minister in the national government. The community also continued to produce prominent rabbis. Be-tween the two wars, Zionist and anti-Zionist organizations came to play a central role in Jewish life in The Hague. 1930 saw the start of a Liberal (Conservative) Jewish community.

The many East European Jews who settled in Scheveningen following their expulsion from Germany after the Nazi take-over in 1933 became enthusiastic participants in local cultur-al, religious and Zionist activities.

At the beginning of World War II, there were some 17,000 Jews in The Hague, more than 12,000 of whom would perish during the War.

After the war, religious services were resumed at several lo-cations. Eventually, the synagogues on the Wagenstraat and De Carpentierstraat were closed and their buildings sold.

At present, the Liberal Jewish and the Orthodox Jewish Communities have regular weekly religious services. The Liberal Community attends services in the old Portuguese

The History of the Jewish Community in The Hague

Synagogue and the Orthodox Jewish Community holds their services in two synagogues: one in Bezuidenhout and one in Scheveningen.

In addition, there are many Jewish organisations in The Hague. The Jewish cultural and educational centre CHAJ, CIDI (Center for Information and Documentation Israël), WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organisation), B’nai B’rith, Loge Hollandia (the Jewish international serviceclub), Mr. L.E. Visserhuis (Jewish home for the elderly) and Joods Maatschappelijk Werk (Jewish Social Work Organization.) Furthermore, Joods Erfgoed (Jewish heritage) is an organisa-tion protecting Jewish heritage in The Hague.

Exactly two years ago a major monument on the Rabbijn Maarsenplein, the heart of the old Jewish center, was un-veiled by the Mayor of The Hague to commemorate the de-portation of its 14,000 Jewish citizens. It incorporates the original impressive Amalek monument from 1970.

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Centrum voor Haagse Jiddisjkeit

Centrum voor Haagse Jiddesjkeit (CHAJ) The Center for Yiddishkeit in The Hague

CHAJ is the cultural and educational foundation of the Jewish Community (NIG) of The Hague. Since its founding in 2014 CHAJ has become the center of living Judaism in The Hague. At CHAJ the past, present and the future of the Jewish community in The Hague are connected. The activities of the center are built on the three pillars of education, cultural activities and social visibility.

CHAJ is host to the only Jewish nursery in The Hague, as well as an information cen-ter for visitors. An extensive library with books in Dutch, Hebrew and English is lo-cated in the CHAJ premises, alongside kosher kitchen facilities and meeting rooms for various groups.

Amongst the ongoing activities of CHAJ are: Hebrew lessons for children and adults, adult education courses as an affiliate of the Jewish Learning Institute, choir practice for Jewish music, occasional lectures, concerts and temporary exhibits.

CHAJ’s primary mission is to strengthen Jewish identity through cultural activities. In addition, CHAJ aims to strengthen the relationship between Jews and the larger society of The Hague, and to make visible the important contribution of Jews and Jewish life to The Hague in the past. A continued Jewish presence in and contribution to The Hague is seen by CHAJ as being a goal for the benefit of all.

Holocaust Remembrance Day The Hague

Nederlands Israëlitische Gemeente ‘s-Gravenhage

The present-day Jewish community (NIG) keeps tradition alive by maintaining all the necessary Jewish religious faci- lities including two synagogues, a modern Mikva, two ceme-teries (including the historic cemetery near the Peace Palace) and educational programs for the children and adults.

Thanks to our very active members and volunteers the Jewish community is thriving with:- A fulltime Rabbi- Weekly services in the two synagoges in Bezuidenhout and Scheveningen- Educational, cultural and culinairy activities in the CHAJ centrum- Chazzanim for Sjabbat and festive days

Nederlands IsraëlitischeGemeente ’s-Gravenhageגא ה

קקיע

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Colofon Our sponsors

Our partners

Rabbijn Katzman, Caroline Twizer, Betty Stad,

Anne Dunkelgrun (projectteam)

Alan Stephens (consultant)

nieuw creatief peil & UBACHS communicatie

(design and production)

We would like to thank the municipality of The Hague

and The Embassy of the State of Israel for their

active support and advice.

A special thanks to Dr. Corien Glaudemans, the Joods

Monument Redactie and the Stichting Joods Erfgoed.